FSN Forum in Africapart of the Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition

Policies, programmes and agricultural investments in West Africa: what analyses and perspectives are there?

Agriculture[1] in West Africa employs around 60% of the region’s assets. It makes up 35% of regional GDP and 15% of regional exports (ECOWAS). In spite of its enormous potential including among other factors the diversity of agro-ecological systems, the relative availability of land and water, the adaptability of family farming and the significant size of the regional market, still around 17% of the population are experiencing food insecurity. In addition, the region suffers from incoherent and inadequate agricultural and commercial policies.

One should add to these challenges the growth in regional population, increasingly numerous and highly urbanized, climate change and the need to build an efficient regional market, well protected and generating employment and wealth based on national markets and providing prices that prioritize the remuneration of the family farming sector with a view to food security and sovereignty.

The ECOWAP [Regional Agricultural Policy for West Africa] adopted in 2005 is a response which should allow:

To better regulate the offer and demand of agricultural products by de-compartmentalizing the markets;

To build a commercial policy that favors the agricultural sector;

To define a clear and ambitious vision in respect of agricultural policy;

To improve the impact of the region on international negotiations.

The civil society actors (CSOs), including producers´ organizations, have played a central role in the definition of the ECOWAP and in part in its implementation. They have contributed by giving it a vision and direction which resonate with the concerns of the farmers.

The participation and empowerment of civil society organizations have been brought about through coordination and consultation bodies which have been set up:

These « task forces » enabled major consultations to take place with multi-actor involvement.

The project that supports the Zero Hunger Initiative began with the technical assistance of FAO with the objective of helping ECOWAS, the member states, the regional institutions and non-state actors to set up, in a participative way, a project for the eradication of hunger and malnutrition in the region by 2025. The mobilization and participation of all the actors in agriculture, food security and nutrition were considered as fundamental to achieve this goal.

At the same time, after 10 years since the implementation of ECOWAP, it is evident that it is now appropriate to hold a fundamental review with the different categories of actors in order to measure progress and failures in order to better delineate the future. Without question, regional agricultural policy plays a significant role in the eradication of regional hunger and malnutrition.

This online discussion constitutes one of the ways adopted to allow the interested actors to put forward their opinions on the management of ECOWAP and on the regional challenges to achieving the objective of the eradication of hunger and malnutrition in West Africa by 2025.

The conclusions drawn from the discussions will be shared in the course of a workshop of civil society organizations which will take place at the beginning of November in order to summarize the conclusions and jointly analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats arising from the participation of non-state actors and to put forward some proposals for the next generation of ECOWAP, PRIA [Programmes régionaux d’investissement agricole, Regional Program for Agricultural investment] and PNIA [programmes nationaux d’investissements agricoles, National Program for Agricultural Investments] .

Specifically, the November workshop «aims to take stock of, analyze and document the present state of institutional governance, in particular the level of representation/participation of non-state actors in the governance of agricultural policies, programs and investments in West Africa, to identify the critical requirements for change that should be taken into account in the readjustments to the new generation of ECOWAP/PRIA/PNIA in order to achieve Zero Hunger by 2025. »

We invite you to give your opinion on the three questions that will be debated in the November civil society organizations workshop:

What would be effective and efficient regional governance for Food Security and Nutrition in West Africa?

What will be the role and place of the non-state actors /civil society organizations (level of representation and participation in the decisions) in the official enactments of the implementation of ECOWAP, agricultural policies and NFS in general both at national and regional level?

Which multi-actors and multi-sector platform should be used to facilitate dialogue and negotiations on policies, programs and investments, accountability, etc.?

All stakeholders are invited to this discussion; contributions received on line will be highly valued and will contribute to strengthening the contribution of civil society organizations towards the objective of Zero Hunger in West Africa by 2025.

Mamadou Goita
Facilitator of the discussion

[1] Farming in the broad sense of the term includes vegetable production, animal production in all its forms, including pastoralism as a way of life, fishing and forestry exploitation.

We thank all those who took part and followed this online discussion on policies, programs and agricultural investments in West Africa.

This exchange of knowledge and opinions has led to an enrichment of the on-going debate on the implementation of regional agricultural policies, ECOWAP in particular, which after 10 years has been the subject of re-evaluation by all those involved in the preparation of the high level conference on ECOWAP+10 which took place from the 17th to 19th November in Dakar (Senegal).

More specifically, the role of the non-state actors in the implementation of national and regional food security and nutrition policies was one of the central themes of this online discussion, the results of which were presented during the non-state actors forum organized by the Project Zero Hunger for West Africa, in Lomé (Togo) from the 5th to 7th November. In the course of this forum, the non-state actors showed the importance of carrying out these online discussions, considering that these virtual fora are less expensive and easier to organize. They asked that the summary of the results should be available in both languages (French and English). It was also suggested that the possibility should be looked into of analyzing the contributions by category of actor.

Here is a brief summary of the key points raised by the participants in the online discussion. To read the complete contributions, you can download the official records of the discussion (available in English and French).

What will be an effective and efficient regional governance for Food Security and Nutrition in West Africa?

The participants have a rather mixed view, even negative, of the coordination and commitment of the States, and highlighted:

The existence of national agricultural policies that do not take into account ECOWAP;

Poor support / political commitment by the states;

Discrepancies and lack of continuity between the policies implemented by the different actors (ECOWAS, CILLS [Comité permanent Inter-Etats de Lutte contre la Sécheresse dans le Sahel, Permanent Interstates Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel], NEPAD, CENSAD [Communauté des États Sahélo-sahariens, Community of Sahel-Saharan States], WAEMU);

The disparity between the demands of agricultural policies and the agendas of financial backers and international partners.

Some participants remarked that the participation of actors in the work of coordination is not canalized, due to insufficient means: ECOWAS funds, «group of donors from ECOWAP» do not have a federating role, the resources of the RAAF [Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food] are limited.

Divergent points of view have been shared regarding the impact of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union and West Africa. Some participants consider that this can play a determining role as long as the coherence of policies is guaranteed through a periodic assessment. Others think that the Partnership it is more orientated towards the interests of the EU and that it will not have positive consequences for trade and the economies of the West African countries.

Many propositions emerged from the online discussion, in particular:

The Zero Hunger in West Africa should be based on securing cultivation by families and on agro-ecology;

It is necessary to connect the role of ECOWAS with an active participation of all the actors, in particular, producers’ organizations;

ECOWAS should strengthen its role in the harmonization of agricultural policies;

The whole group of regional actors should work towards:

Ø The adoption of a single regional agricultural policy,

Ø The rationalization of mandates and response capacity of regional institutions,

Ø The reinforcement of the regional institutional arrangement adopted by ECOWAS in 2010,

Ø The coordination of interventions by development partners.

It is necessary to guarantee the mobility of production factors (regional markets and trade);

It is necessary to monitor/ensure the follow-up of the implementation of agricultural policies.

What role and which place will have the non-state actors /civil society organizations (level or representation and participation in the decisions) in the institutional system of implementation of the ECOWAP and the agricultural policies and the NFS in general both at national and regional level?

In relation to the non-state actors (civil society and agricultural professional organizations), the participants to the online discussion have highlighted that they often have a "residual" role and only passive involvement in the definition of regional agricultural policies as well as a deficit of sources of proposals.

However, care must be taken so that non-state actors may play a fundamental role: of appeal, lobbying and vigilance in the implementation of agricultural policies.

At the same time, the civil society and agricultural professional organizations must reinforce communication between the different actors and the grassroots that they represent, must equip themselves with better organization and reinforce their capabilities and competences in order that they can take decisive actions and have a voice in the regional and international negotiations which influence the NFS in West Africa.

Which multi-actors and multi-sector platform should be used to facilitate dialogue and negotiations on policies, programs and investments, accountability, etc.?

The propositions suggested on this point are divided among those that aim at using existing mechanisms, for example ROPPA [Reseau de organisations paysannes et de producteurs de l'Afrique de l'Ouest, Network of farmers and producers organizations of West Africa], the platform against hunger and malnutrition of West Africa, the SUN (Scaling up Nutrition) mechanism, and those which aim to define new platforms, such as for example the proposal for a framework agreement on the involvement of civil society organizations and non-state actors in the implementation of ECOWAP or the thematic platforms.

During the Forum, the representatives of non-state organizations have recommended to ECOWAS to (i) make operative the consultative committee for agriculture, food and nutrition as a space for dialogue between the actors; (ii) reinforce consultation and dialogue with non-state actors and civil society organizations in the implementation and follow-up of the Zero Hunger initiative in West Africa; (iii) reinforce the capabilities of non-state actors and civil society organizations to enable them to participate fully in the achievement of zero hunger by 2025; (iv) set up a mechanism for informing periodically the non-state actors and civil society organizations about the progress made and the problems emerging which may limit the achievement of the objective Zero Hunger and Malnutrition in West Africa from now until 2025; (v) contribute to the coordination of the regional multisector platforms for food security and nutrition; and (vi) strengthen the capabilities of non-state actors and society in general concerning the collection, treatment and dissemination of information and the arguments in favor of the zero hunger initiative and the development of family based agriculture.

As a conclusion, the FSN forum has allowed us to exchange knowledge and to make more visible the present debate over the future of ECOWAP and how to work together to liberate West Africa from hunger and malnutrition.

>> English

What would be effective and efficient regional governance for Food Security and Nutrition in West Africa?

Effective and efficient regional governance for Food Security and Nutrition in West Africa should be a multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder platform where a number of factors are dealt with. Since agriculture comprises of a number of areas like crops (fruits, vegetables, staples etc), animals (livestock, poultry), fisheries, forestry etc, and food security also extends beyond just agricultural production, it is necessary to widen the net to cover other sectors like trade, roads, gender among others. Again, nutrition is also broad and covers areas like agriculture, health, social protection, water, sanitation and hygiene. These issues necessitate the formation of a broad multi-sectoral platform that would monitor progress of food and nutrition issues in the sub-region. The stakeholders in the various areas should also not be left out: the individual farmers and producers of the food, and their associations/ groups or alliances, processors, transporters, marketers/ traders, aggregators, policy-makers, civil society organizations, trade unions, private sector operators, public sector, Parliamentarians etc.

Minimum requirement should then be set to ensure that everyone within a certain jurisdiction is not left out in the “zero hunger bracket”. These minimum requirements of certain factors should include indicators for monitoring, bench marks, monitoring team etc. Others (probably the hardware) could include silos/ warehouses for storage of food and other essential items, drying machines; human factor is also important and therefore the education part or capacity building of extension officers and the general populace. The issues to monitor include from access to land, its preparation to production, storage, nutrition issues especially maternal and child health issues. Other areas to consider should be early warning signals, disaster prevention and management etc. To ensure that everyone is food secured at the lower level, decentralization of decision making and implementation are crucial.

The policy of AU (Maputo and the Malabo declarations)- NEPAD’s CAADP; and ECOWAP at the sub-regional level are important to support country level efforts to eradicate hunger and malnutrition.

What will be the role and place of the non-state actors /civil society organizations (level of representation and participation in the decisions) in the official enactments of the implementation of ECOWAP, agricultural policies and NFS in general both at national and regional level?

The responsibility of non-state actors should be mainly watch dog role. However, in some few instances, local or community based groups can support with implementation but should be rare. If the Civil society groups have their own funding, then they could do or have different innovative approaches that could be shared for scale up. Civil society groups could also be involved from project/ program design to selection of monitoring indicators so that it will be easy to follow discussions on implementation of policy issues. Monitoring should be at the national levels but at various levels (from local to ECOWAS levels) CSOs should have representations. Selection should be carefully done; criteria should be developed for selection of the persons and organizations.

Civil society groups should have their own separate groups in addition to being involved in a general public platform from district/county level to national level.

Which multi-actors and multi-sector platform should be used to facilitate dialogue and negotiations on policies, programs and investments, accountability, etc.?

Ministries of Food and Agriculture in the various countries could create a working group that brings together serious actors within the sector, and a nutrition platform using existing structures such as the SUN (Scaling up Nutrition) platform. Civil society could however, have a separate platform to gather their own independent information for analysis and evidence based decision making. There is the need for coordination and harmonization of all programmes to avoid duplication. In all stages, women and youth’s involvement are crucial.

>> English

The 1996 World Food Summit, in Rome was the first ever world summit held in order to solve the hunger problem, by which 182 governments committed themselves to “eradicate hunger in all countries with the target of reducing by half the number of undernourished people by no later than the year 2015." The second summit addresses the first Millennium development objective, established in 2000 by the members of the UN, where one of the targets is to "halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.”

We are now nearly at the end of 2015. The update made by FAO for the different regions has shown that there has been much progress in each region, except that one can still see disparities between these regions and particularly in West Africa.

The case of West Africa shows that in the period 1990-2015, hunger has been reduced, from 24.2% in 1990 to 9.6% in 2015. However, this reduction does not really show the efforts made by each country. With the specifics and realities of each country, it would also be good to find adequate solutions in order to contribute significantly to reduce hunger.

What will be an effective and efficient regional governance for Food Security and Nutrition in West Africa?

The increase in population and climate change are factors that exacerbate hunger in Africa. As well as these prime factors, wars, globalization and the absence of public control of multinationals should be added and are equally important causes of hunger. For example the land grabbing phenomenon, the dispossession of local people by big business with the objective of ensuring the continuity of their activities and the support for multinationals by governments. Finally, the agro-fuels perhaps represent the main challenge to be high- lighted, because they compete directly with the crops intended for feeding mankind.

In terms of regional governance, between the agricultural policies of ECOWAS, UNDP, WAEMU, NEPAD and national policies there is a certain lack of harmonization which does not permit individuals to satisfy their food needs. It is a question mainly of problems related to the mobility of factors of production and of production itself. The producers find several barriers which do not allow them to benefit from their efforts in regional markets. There are various customs barriers among countries in the same region (ECOWAS, WAEMU) which do not encourage free movement of food products despite the policies of free trade in place between these countries. In practice, these policies are still theoretical and ineffective.

A necessary and essential convergence is required of these policies which are a reference for us all, state and non-state actors.

Basing ourselves on the definition of hunger given by FAO, it would be appropriate to:

- Assess the situation of food security in each country of the sub-region

- Identify the target population vulnerable to hunger in each country of the sub-region

- Target assistance to the vulnerable population

- Introduce incentivizing measures to encourage young developers to invest in the agricultural sector especially in the production of food crops at national level.

- Give policy recommendations fitting for the eradication of hunger in the target areas.

What role and which place will have the non-state actors /civil society organizations (level or representation and participation in the decisions) in the institutional system of implementation of the ECOWAP and the agricultural policies and the NFS [National Food Security] in general both at national and regional level?

- The role that the civil society/non-state actors can play would be to make their voices heard at national and government levels so that they may make their contribution to hunger reduction. That is, taking into account the institutional mechanisms implemented by ECOWAP and agricultural policies at national and regional level.

- Mobilize producers to invest more in the production of food crops.

- Encourage small farmers to abandon agricultural practices that will impoverish the soil.

- Actors must also work to improve the agricultural productivity of vulnerable people in order to improve their agricultural income

- Creation of a very dependable social assistance organization at national and regional level in order to assist people vulnerable to hunger

Which multi-actors and multi-sector platform should be used to facilitate dialogue and negotiations on policies, programs and investments, accountability, etc.?

To facilitate dialogue between the actors and the negotiations on policies, investment programs etc. … it would be acceptable to create an environment favorable to all the actors of the sector in order that each one may contribute their ideas and share their experiences for the development of the domain.

Conscious of the hunger problem in the sub-region, the actors and partners in the sub-region could decide to work together to bring to fruition a global and collective process for information systems development and training of people affected by under nourishment in order to eradicate it and assure a better life for all in the sub-region.

There is still a way to go before we arrive at the end of hunger in the world, and particularly in West Africa. Not withstanding, there is hope because numerous issues and proposals for solutions are being defined and will assist in convergence towards the final objective.

>> English

1- What will be an effective and efficient regional governance for Food Security and Nutrition in West Africa?

In general, the regional policies issued by the intergovernamental organizations (ECOWAS, WAEMU) are well designed and able to make essential contributions to the sectors in question. The main problem that arises is their ineffective application in the field.

You get the feeling that the support of our States is less than a hundred percent because commitments made at the regional level, are not always followed by results at country level. Life for the grassroots population is only indiscernibly improved. To sum up, the whole question is "how to achieve an effective application of regional policies?"

That is also valid for agricultural policies at regional level, which means ECOWAP, for ECOWAS and the Agricultural Policy (PAU) for the WAEMU. These documents can really promote agricultural development and start to build food security in West Africa.

To be efficient regional governance must:

• ensure that the different actors really play their role, by establishing an assessment mechanism, accompanied by a retribution system and why not, including sanctions.

• ensure that at the country level, agricultural producers, who represent 60 to 80% of the active population in these countries, are benefitting from strengthening of their abilities and have access to tested management tools in order to have a minimum control over their production activities (the tools for managing land use exist in several countries) for example the Family Farm Management Council (CEF) tried out successfully in Burkina with cotton producers.

• work to make the agricultural profession more esteemed, by recognizing its merits at their true worth. And work to improve motivation of these actors, by guaranteeing them a fair purchase price for agricultural products, which is sufficient to cover the costs of production and to guarantee them a secure income. In fact, agricultural products are often sold at a loss for various reasons.

• create openings for agricultural products by stimulating the development of the transformation linkage, which will contribute equally to reduce post-harvest wastage and to create employment.

• obtain the necessary means not to remain marginalized in terms of bio-technologies. It is time for Africa to give up instinctive reactions which consist in rejecting en bloc certain technologies among which the biotechnologies such as transgenetics, from which surely much good will come. To achieve this, the national and regional research systems should have sufficient resources. Because if Africa is not careful, i) it will continue to ba a marginalized continent in the group of nations and ii) Africa will, sooner or later, be led to consume genetically modified products produced by others.

In short, to be efficient and effective, food security governance should be concerned with the impacts of the actions of regional organizations upon the grassroots population and also to factor in bio-technological innovations in their forecasts and planning.

2- What role and which place will have the non-state actors /civil society organizations (level or representation and participation in the decisions) in the institutional system of implementation of the ECOWAP and the agricultural policies and the NFS [National Food Security] in general both at national and regional level?

In the institutional presence both at national and regional level, the non-state actors, notably the Professional Agricultural Organizations, play an important consultative role in the implementation of agricultural and food security policies. At regional level, the Professional Agricultural Organizations are fully cognizant of the policies and contribute to their implementation. However, the fact is that there is not always an insistence on the accountability of these organizations towards the grassroots producers. These organizations should play the role of channel of communication between the different actors at regional, national and grassroots level. Moreover, the private actors (Research consultants, Advisory consultants to Producers ...) for the ECOWAS-WAEMU zone should equally be able to participate in the deliberations on pertinent issues such as food security.

3- Which multi-actors and multi-sector platform should be used to facilitate dialogue and negotiations on policies, programs and investments, accountability, etc.?

The exchange platforms must be committed to involve on a case by case basis, a certain number of actors (individuals or organizations) directly concerned in the subjects being discussed, as well as the representatives of the regional umbrella organizations in such a way as to garner the points of view of those who are mainly concerned.

>> English translation

1. What will be an effective and efficient regional governance for Food Security and Nutrition in West Africa?

The biggest problem for governance in Africa can be found in the binding of national economies to capitalism. The agricultural policies of the community have not escaped it. In general terms, the agricultural projects that we try to set up in our African countries, despite their pharaonic character, often come to nothing because they are the reflection of imported institutional implants and do not have any community character. They are detached from the realities of our land. We see more and more initiatives aimed at undermining the basis of our family farming system, which those commonly called small farmers have been developing for thousands of years. Therefore, contrary to wrongly accepted ideas, it is well known that 70% of the food that we take each day comes from the labor of these farmers, using only 25% of the world’s arable land. What do we have to conclude? We have to make the observation that the world agricultural sector is supported by small farmers who paradoxically do not benefit from any subsidy by their respective States. The choice of an agricultural policy which aims, come what may, at the investment of gigantic sums in agro-business does not serve in reality anything other than the selfish mercantile interests of some multinationals to the detriment of the people.

To be effective and efficient, regional governance must discard its vision of westernized agriculture firmly directed towards the unrestrained pursuit of profit, through the export of cash crops.

This will require the redefinition of priorities: to achieve "the objective of Zero Hunger in the community space" the policies should be oriented towards the support and backing of family based agriculture and agro-ecology, for the following reasons:

It is these closely linked sectors that provide for the food needs of cities and villages, correcting in this way the problem of availability of food;

These sectors favor the local markets and at the same time reduce the problem of food accessibility;

These sectors which are not closed to innovations, have the advantage that they profit from the knowledge of farmers;

These sectors are more adept at facing climatic hazards and plant diseases because they rely on genetic diversity;

These sectors contribute to the cooling of the they planet because they do not use fossil fuels and prefer delivering their food products over short distances;

Because they have a strong community foundation, these sectors are sustainable.

It is therefore time to turn our back on industrial, highly intensive and chemical agriculture whose costly effects continue to be suffered by certain countries: massive rural exodus, environmental pollution, loss of genetic diversity, impoverishment of farmers...

It is necessary to put a stop to the policy of support for multi-faceted industrial agriculture: Green Revolution, AGRA [Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa], NASAN [New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition] ... which contain very obvious internal contradictions. NASAN, for example, pretends to contribute to food security and nutrition, while it is essentially concentrated on export crops.

The green revolutions which are characterized by the excessive use of chemicals, by the irrational use of water and supposedly improved seeds, aim at cutting away the rights of the African farmers, through the criminalization of traditional seeds, inciting monopolization of land and bio-piracy.

The agricultural policy will not be effective and efficient unless it refuses to give its endorsement to the present rules of international trade which harbors iniquity with dumping, subsidies to farmers in the North, the APE [European Producer Associations]...

2. What role and which place will have the non-state actors /civil society organizations (level or representation and participation in the decisions) in the institutional system of implementation of the ECOWAP and the agricultural policies and the NFS [National Food Security] in general both at national and regional level?

In all eras, civil society has played and continues to play a residual role in the definition of policies. It has been confined to a counter-balancing role and not as a real force for making proposals. In reality, it is obliged to act according to the lines established by the political and legislative organizations concerning agricultural affairs. It is time to reverse the roles because the civil society which represents the aspirations of communities and grassroots population must henceforth propose solutions for them.

3. Which multi-actors and multi-sector platform should be used to facilitate dialogue and negotiations on policies, programs and investments, accountability, etc.?

Most of the time, representation from within the platforms’ center is at a disadvantage of civil society. It is necessary to create disequilibrium in order for civil society to benefit from strong representation in the negotiations. It is important, above all, to ensure the quality, competences and the intellectual and moral integrity of those involved in the different negotiations.

>> English translation

ECOWAP: a fragmented policy

Development partners and regional institutions should address leadership and coordination issues in order to build a common agricultural policy for West Africa

Ten years after the launch of the ECOWAS policy on food and agriculture that sought to channel efforts in the sector, coordination remains a serious challenge. Several regional initiatives compete with each other both at the political and at the project level, with the complicity of certain development partners. By imposing their own intervention frameworks, development partners often weaken regional authorities and breach their own commitments on aid effectiveness.

Following the global food crisis, the regional process that was launched between 2009-11 gave real impetus to ECOWAP, the Regional Agricultural Policy that had been adopted by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) back in 2005. In 2009, the signature of the “Regional Partnership Compact for the Implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme in West Africa (ECOWAP/CAADP)” rallied key actors around common commitments, particularly those linked to the application of the principles of leadership, alignment and coordination of interventions in the food and agriculture sector at the regional level. This Pact was followed by the adoption of the Regional Agricultural Investment Plan (RAIP) in 2010, which shaped the regional agricultural policy, and by the creation of the institutional framework in charge of steering, executing and financing the RAIP. This framework is composed of the Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food (RAAF), the Agriculture and Food Development Fund (ECOWAPDF) as well as several consultative bodies. At the same time, ECOWAS was steering similar processes in member countries, with the aim of formulating national agricultural investment plans (NAIP). ECOWAS thereby showed its leadership in steering the initiative as well as its commitment to operationalize ECOWAP, while at the same time pushing development partners to concretise the principles of aid effectiveness.

Unfortunately, six years later the outcome seems quite stark. As the ECOWAS Memorandum on the activities carried out in 2011-12 rightly highlighted, “the move from multiple programmes and projects to an integrated approach within a coherent policy constitutes an extremely complex exercise”. This exercise is made even more difficult by the fact that not all the stakeholders take part in coordination efforts, while others go as far as to promote and finance parallel intervention frameworks, as is largely the case in the region. For now, the institutional framework in place seems to be unable to channel the initiatives of international donors and the RAIP is far from representing a reference framework for agricultural and food interventions in the region.

Several largely interrelated factors may explain this situation. First of all, ECOWAS went back on all the financial commitments it had adopted in the food and agriculture sector to face other priorities in the areas of safety and health in the region. Consequently, even if the regional fund was created, it has never been financed and without financial investment, ECOWAS has lost part of its capacity to spearhead development partners. Furthermore, the Regional Agency for Agriculture and Food (RAAF) remains a young structure with an insufficient team and still struggling to emerge. According to a diagnosis that seems largely shared by development partners, RAAF does not yet have sufficient autonomy vis à vis the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources. Nor does it offer enough guarantees to manage the funds nor have the capacity to manage large-scale projects. While several donors are providing their funds through other regional institutions, ECOWAS and RAAF find themselves unable to coordinate all the projects, part of which are weakly aligned with the guidelines or with the institutional framework of ECOWAP.

Certain institutions that donors consider to be less restrictive are experiencing a new upswing. This is the case of CILSS (Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel), for example, which has been implementing a growing number of regional programmes financed by development partners in recent years. Recent conventions signed with non-traditional CILSS donors (World Bank, African Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank) currently represent several hundred million dollars. Despite the fact that CILSS is supposed to act as the “technical arm” of ECOWAS in the implementation of ECOWAP, ECOWAS bodies are not involved in the design of numerous regional programmes implemented by CILSS. Faced with the fait accompli, there is only left for them to integrate these projects as contributions to the implementation of ECOWAP a posteriori, even if the direction, the scope of the intervention or the institutional provisions do not necessarily correspond to those defined by ECOWAS.

For its part, WAEMU adopted a new « Programme Communautaire Décennal de Transformation de l'Agriculture pour la Sécurité Alimentaire et Nutritionnelle (PCD-TASAN) » (“Ten years programme for Agriculture transformation for food security and nutrition”) in 2014 (with a certain time-lag with the revision of ECOWAP). This programme calls for a «paradigmatic shift » in the agriculture sector, having noted the failure of previous approaches, such as the implementation of the NAIP. The provisional programme formulation report, which provides a detailed account of all the projects that compose it, makes almost no mention of the RAIP adopted by ECOWAS in 2010, even if it largely covers the same intervention areas.

In a context that is already deeply fragmented, development partners are not often a source of coherence, but in fact the opposite. The “ECOWAP Group” that was supposed to bring together key development partners at the regional level through a coordination mechanism is not succeeding in playing its convening role. Since the main donors present in the region are largely absent from meetings, participation falters and those who do participate do not always have the information and/or the necessary mandate to involve their institutions in real coordination efforts.

The intervention mapping exercise conducted within the framework of the ECOWAP Group constitutes a first effort in the quest for transparency. Nevertheless, almost 90% of the programmes recorded in the 2013 data base do not specify the results to which the intervention contributes in one of the three specific objectives of the RAIP, which makes any coordination effort difficult beyond a mere information exchange. The ordinary analytical work that would normally allow collective needs assessments or reviews or common instructions has not been carried out. Finally, the mapping provides a very partial vision of regional investments since the programmes that are implemented without a direct link with ECOWAS are not systematically included. This point provides a good indication of the weak links that exist between the ECOWAP Group and other groups of technical and financial partners (TFP) working in the food and agriculture sector in the region, whether with WAEMU or the CILSS. Even if all coordination and alignment efforts are commendable in principle, it seems problematic for such little coordination to exist and for no overall supervision to be in place. Lastly, the coherence and legitimacy of these different groups are questioned given that some of the largest regional donors such as the World Bank or the European Commission are represented at the CILSS but do not participate (or no longer participate) at the ECOWAP Group meetings.

In this complex institutional context, certain international initiatives or initiatives promoted by development partners add confusion, by promoting new spaces for coordination and programming. The commitment of ECOWAS countries to formulate their «national resilience priorities» (NRP) within the framework of the AGIR is an example of this, since its timing was more aligned with the programming of the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) than with upcoming revisions of the NAIP and RAIP. Even if countries that have developed their NRP have based them on NAIP and their contents, articulation with future national agricultural investment programmes remains unclear for most of the actors involved. The World Bank’s Sahel Initiative and the Regional Sahel Pastoralism Support Project (PRAPS), which is one of its five main components, provides another illustration of the difficulties involved in aligning programmes implemented by development partners with those of the RAIP. PRAPS includes two countries from outside ECOWAS (Chad and Mauritania) apart from Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, and it makes reference to the Nouakchott Declaration adopted on the 29th October 2013 by 6 heads of State and Government at the behest of the World Bank, in what constitutes a political framework primarily elaborated for the occasion.

More generally, the multiplication of multi-actor platforms as a result of global initiatives or of initiatives promoted by donors since 2009, which were supposed to ensure inclusive dialogue and participation in different initiatives, raises the question of whether there is a real will on the part of actors to address the multi-layered coordination frameworks that exist in the region[1].

It is essential for the first 10-year review process of ECOWAP to bring about a strong political commitment shared by all actors for a single common agricultural policy in West Africa. In order to achieve this, all regional actors (institutions and regional organisations, Member States, development partners, private sector and civil society) must work together to:

Adopt a single regional policy for the agriculture, food security and nutrition sector, that allows the effective alignment of the objectives and formulation exercises of different regional organisations and of all the development partners involved in the sector;

Rationalise the mandates and resources of regional institutions to allow the coordination of their efforts and the complementarity of their actions in the implementation of this common policy;

Strengthen the regional institutional framework adopted by ECOWAS in 2010 and align the interventions of development actors with this framework in order to allow ECOWAS to play its full role in both the financing and the implementation of regional programmes;

Ensure effective coordination of development partner interventions by rationalising existing coordination mechanisms and promoting thematic groups that allow them to advance in their programmatic, institutional and financial alignment in the political and institutional regional framework.

[1] This is the case for example of the ACT Alliance which invested RPCA the main space for dialogue , the G8 initiative " New Alliance for Agriculture and Food Security" or promoted multi-stakeholder platforms by Scaling Up Nutrition initiative or recent Sahel initiatives , which multiply their own consultation and programming frameworks

>> English translation

The need to improve agricultural investments.

I have spoken earlier of agricultural transition. This is important because it has been proven that there is a positive relationship between agricultural transition and economic growth. Agricultural transition should be evident in an improvement of agriculture productivity and in the development of the agro-industrial sector which will progressively absorb a good part of the active population employed at present in agriculture. Thus, with a well -performing agricultural sector, less people are needed to be employed in order to feed many more consumers. That is already the case in Latin America where agriculture occupies only 2,9% of the active population, whereas the equivalent rate is still 70% in West Africa.

At the same time, the agricultural sector is recognized as being that in which investment is able to produce economic growth in favor of the poor; an economic growth that will bring disproportionate profit to the poor. That is to say that the evils will not finish in West Africa if we do not succeed in rendering the sector attractive to the young. As a proof, the 2015 World Bank report marks the evolution of poverty in an Africa in full economic boom (average annual growth rate of 4.5 over 20 years). This is why I propose a judicious allocation of investments in the agricultural sector. The allocation areas listed are those that constitute these days the true bottlenecks for producers and above all for the young: inappropriate funding mechanism, high risks (climate risks, production risks, economic and financing risks). On this subject, it is very regrettable that there are still West African countries that do not have an agricultural bank; the exception being countries like Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria and Burkina Faso that already have them. Indeed, no other institution could better serve the agricultural entrepreneurs apart from agricultural banks which are charged with the financing of agriculture taking strict account of the agro-economic and social realities in the region.

>> English version

Dear friends, key actors of Agriculture development in West Africa,

Two weeks ago, we launched the online discussion on the Agricultural policies and programmes’ governance linked to ECOWAP and the « Zero Hunger Initiative ». Some of you have contributed very positively to the online discussions. Congratulations for them and I really appreciate the high quality of their contributions with relevant documents posted sometimes.

There are just few days remaining before we close the discussions. I’ll encourage those who didn’t contribute to do so in sharing their views that are very important for us. For those who already contributed, you can continue the discussion in raising new issues or completing your thoughts.

This online discussion are fundamental for us and I sincerely hope you’ll take some of your precious time to add your voice/writing. This is about the future of Agriculture in our region, nobody should be left out from the debate or marginalized. I really hope to read you soon before proceeding to the synthesis of pur discussions.

Thanks in advance for your future highly appreciated and valuable contributions and documents.

>> English

What policy of investment for the agricultural transition in West Africa?

Context

The importance of agriculture for the development of Africa in general and for West Africa in particular, has been recognized for decades. Continental and regional policy documents bear witness, which have always emphasized the primary importance of the agricultural sector for food security and nutrition, employment, reduction of poverty and the development of Africa. Thus, the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) was started in the framework of the New Partnership Programme for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and was adopted in Maputo (Mozambique) in 2003. By derivation from CAADP, the Regional Agricultural Policy for West Africa was drawn up in 2005, with the objective: to “contribute in a sustainable way to meeting the food needs of the population, to economic and social development, to the reduction of poverty in the Member States, and thus to reduce existing inequalities among territories, zones and nations.” The CAADP has set as objectives for the African States to increase agricultural productivity by 6% per year and to raise the budgetary contribution dedicated by these States to agriculture to at least 10% of their budget.

Unfortunately, the fruits have not yet borne out the promise of the blossoms. The proof is that nearly 33 percent of the Sub-Saharan African population, that is around 200 million people, are under-fed, of which 60 percent are from countries in conflict (Kidane et al., 2006). The region remains, as a whole, frequently exposed to famine and other food crises, easily triggered by the least drought, flooding, pest invasion, economic recession or conflict situations. Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world where one anticipates a worsening of the hunger problem in the next twenty years if radical measures are not taken to establish peace, improve governance and achieve the economic development necessary to reverse the present tendency. At the same time, these days, one could say that in general African governments have not yet succeed in satisfying the demands of CAADP, even if countries like Niger, Mali, Senegal, Malawi, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso have managed to cross the 10% threshold. The countries of Africa have increased on average their expenditure at an average rate of 8.5% per year in the 2003-2010 period, that is from10.1 billions of dollars per country in 2003 to 16.9 billion on average in 2010. During this period, the part dedicated to agricultural public expenses for the whole of Africa has increased from nearly 0.39 billion dollars on average per country in 2003 to 0.66 billion dollars in 2010 (Benin & Yu, 2013).

This state of affairs calls for three main actions.

1- Improvement of regional governance for food security and nutrition in West Africa

On this subject, I have published in 2014 an article on the Foundation for World Agriculture and Rural Life (FARM), blog; the article is accessible on line:

2- Reinforcement of investments in agriculture, with a good implication of ANE through an operational platform

The known failures related to engagements and implementation of agricultural development programs calls for a change in the way of operating. To this effect, it seems more opportune that the West African States commit henceforth to more serious engagements, in particular through the drawing up and voting of the Laws for agricultural orientation (LOA). These will have more power of coercion and obligation on governments than the simple declarations and engagements taken up to now. Some countries already have a law for agricultural orientation. This is the case of Senegal and Mali. The hope of development is more nurtured in these countries. In the dynamic of the implementation of the law of agricultural orientation, the civil society organizations will have a primary role; that of pleading and lobbying for the startup and achievement of the process of setting up the law of agricultural orientation and that of citizen watch over its implementation. This citizen-watch could be supported by a formal multi-actor platform with the objective of good co-ordination of actions and a holistic approach to resolving the problems which the West African agricultural sector poses. This platform could bring together in particular, the agricultural producer, the transformers, the traders of agricultural and agro-food products, the technical and financial parteners interested in the agricultural questions of West Africa. This platform could among others, deal with the questions of agricultural finance institutions in West Africa and the accessibility of Nigeria and Ghana for the reinforcement of intra-regional commerce in West Africa.

3- Effective allocation of investments to induce and accelarate agricultural transition in West Africa

It would be an error today to give priority to the redirection of the resources needed to relieve the contribution of public expenditure in agriculture towards the administrative tasks of the agricultural sector. The priority should be for relevant investments to be deployed for land management, the construction of rural service roads, agricultural research and particularly the social security of producers (harvest insurance, weather hazards insurance and health insurance).

>> English translation

We know that the world population is over 7 billion today and will grow to over 9 billion in 2050. The 2014 FAO Report shows that 60% of arable land is in Africa and the remaining 40% is spread over the rest of the world. However, hunger and poverty mainly originates in Africa. The objective of Development Goal n. 2 provides for eliminating hunger in all its forms and throughout 2030.

What governance for Food Security and Nutrition in West Africa?

We know that governments make a lot of effort to food self-sufficiency but in vain. Farmers are also fighting for the same cause but hunger is always there. It is then necessary to change policy. Cataloguing farmland at regional level, modernize agriculture with new techniques and technologies involving CSOs, scientists, the private sector etc… To do this, form a multisectoral committee to study, plan, execute and manage agricultural projects (eg Nama) in selected countries for industrial productions.

Transparency, mobilization of human resources at regional and international level will be an asset to this inclusive governance.

To this end, we must organize regional meetings for different players and for different crops.